The Autographed Gold Cartridge
by LibraSnakes13
Summary: Obsessed with 2nd generation of Pokemon, Brian Dragonfly yearns to be Pokemon Master of Johto. However, he must fully realize how much strategy it takes to win at this "children's game" and fulfill his life long dream.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo, Gamefreak or Pokemon

Author's Note: This fic will probably be pulled. Not by stupidity of the fic, hopefully, but by the setting this takes place in. The story, as you read in the brief synopsis, takes place in the real world. No real life pokemon that you catch with pokeballs or a setting in Johto. This is _our_ world. But it is still a fic nonetheless because it is still one trainer who learns about what it takes to become a Pokemon Master with his pokemon. This story will play homage to all the manga series that can take a seemingly fun game or sport, such as Go or baseball, and turn it into a battle between wits. The prologue is just a prologue, but Chapter 1 and beyond will show that Pokemon, is not just a children's game. As a final word, this fic is dedicated to those who play Pokemon Gold, Silver or Crystal to win, to bring out some nostalgia from a childhood long gone, or to just have fun. Thank you. ~LibraSnakes13

Brian adjusted his black framed glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked down at his purple, Gameboy Color. He frowned and adjusted himself on the hard, carpet floor and tilted the purple device. The ceiling lights shined bright enough so he could see the scratched up screen. It was dim but that was good enough for him. The Gameboy Color binged several times and he saw the silhouette of Ho-Oh flying across the pixilated blue sky.

Start.

Continue.

The field of grass itched Brian's shins. He adjusted his pants as best as he could to protect the slim body part. Route 31, just east of Violet City, seemed to grow the wildest of grasses yet the tamest of all pokemon. Bellsprouts would just look at you as you pass by them. They stood tall and erect with their sweet, honey-glazed mouths fully open, ready to catch an unsuspecting pollinating insect. Their leaves were spread wide open and soaked up the warm rays of the sun. Brian had always been curious about these Venus flytrap-like pokemon. They are truly one of the great wonders of nature. For bellsprouts, even though they soak up clear, mountain water into their small and windy roots and absorb the energy packed rays of the sun into their deep green leaves, still catch live prey and digest it for nutrition.

"I wonder…" he said to himself as he stood in the field, "if there is a term that combines the idea of heterotrophic with autotrophic?"

His chikorita looked at him with wide and expecting eyes and gave a confused grunt, he didn't know the answer any better than Brian did. Chikorita probably didn't even know what a heterotrophic creature was. Brian laughed at himself, oh he loved Johto.

Brian's gastly made a low, wry chuckle and stuck out a rather large tongue that was half his size. Like most ghost pokemon, he had a playful streak in him. Just a moment ago, he was making faces to Brian's staryu to see if the no-face pokemon would react to his playful insults. The staryu seemed apathetic towards the ghost pokemon and seemed to find more entertainment in watching a stray caterpie slowly crawl its way through the dense underbrush.

A rustle in the bushes startled Brian and alerted his three companions. Out came a rattata which looked Brian straight in the eye and twitched its round nose. Seeing him as a threat to deal with, the rattata attacked. Brian looked at Staryu and said, "Staryu, let's go!"

Shaking off the weight of sloth and sluggishness, Staryu sprung into action with copious amounts of alacrity and assumed his attacking position.

"Alright Staryu!" said Brian, "Use-"

"Excuse me?"

A voice brought Brian back to reality. He looked up from the game and saw a girl of about his age peering down at him with eager, jelly bean-blue eyes.

"Yes…?" he replied having a good feeling what she was going to ask him.

"May I take a picture with you?"

Brian nodded his head and stood up from the bench.

He was somewhat tall, but he seemed only a little bit more by his slim figure, his striped suit and his poofy hair, which was now covered by a top hat that had brass goggles strapped to it. His face was in a shady area that resided in both the region of hollowness and handsomeness and his glasses only enhanced the confusion between the two.

However, what really grabbed the girl's attention towards him was his costume. Along with his brass goggles, Brian wore a suit with a vest that was studded with brass buttons and a pocket watch whose gears could be clearly seen through its glass case. A leather and worn belt held a grimy looking revolver that was actually a mishmash of two water guns, a Nerf gun and part of a small binocular.

His odd getup could be explained by the fact that he was at an anime convention. It was his first time at such an event and he was astounded by how many cosplayers there were. He saw a variety of characters ranging from Ouran Host High School Club to Naruto to others which he had no fathom what they were.

As for him, he was dressing up in his steampunk outfit. They had a special panel going on about this crazy sci-fi genre and he wanted to learn more about it. He was just a beginner at it so he wanted some ideas to get the juices in his head flowing. It was one of the main reasons why he went to it in the first place.

Which was why this girl wanted to take a photo with him. She was the fifth person to ask him for a photo. Not that he was complaining, mind you, for every time they asked him he felt somewhat happy that they recognized his hard work.

He slid his Gameboy Color into his pocket and bowed to her and said, "anything for you, madam."

"Yay! Thank you so much!'

She took out her camera and he took a jaunty pose, with his head held high and his hands resting on his hips. She took the photograph, squealed, and gave him a hug. He was also expecting that.

He looked at his stylized pocket watch and sighed. It will still be two hours before the start of the steampunk panel. He looked around and wondered how else he can kill time at the convention.

And through his somewhat dirty glasses, he saw a long line forming that trailed out a room and down the hallway. Curious as to what it was, he went up to a girl who was in line and said, "Excuse me, what is this line for?"

"Oh, this is for Danny Black! We're waiting in line for him to give out autographs! I'm going to have him sign my _Warrior of the Moon_ t-shirt!"

The girl next to her, who was dressed up as Envy from _Full Metal Alchemist_ nodded and said, "And I'm having him sign my poster of _A Red Tulip in a Sea of Violets_!"

Danny Black was a popular voice actor for English-dub anime. He had grown in fame over the years for his collection of voices and his ability to match his voice with the given character. Though Brian never did see _A Red Tulip in a Sea of Violets_, he was somewhat a fan of the show _Warrior of the Moon_ and liked it for the fighting and the overall combination of science with magic.

Brian stopped and thought for a moment. He had two hours to kill before the steampunk panel started, he could just past the time by waiting in line for Danny Black to sign something of his.

But what to sign?

He patted himself down and his hand rested on his revolver. He shook his head, no, he didn't want anyone to sign his steampunk gear since that would diminish the aspect of the costume and overall his character. His right handed went into his pocket and pulled out the anime convention pamphlet. He bit is lower lip and shook his head again. No, that wouldn't do either. A pamphlet could easily be destroyed or damaged and it didn't hold any emotional attachments to him.

His left hand went into the other pocket and he pulled out his Gameboy Color. He looked at it for awhile and then turned it over so he could see the back. His Pokemon Gold cartridge was still in there, ready to continue on his pokemon adventure. He looked at it as if it turned into actual gold and said to himself, "Yes…_that_ will do."

Without hesitation, he walked to the back of the line and resumed the battle with his unnamed staryu.

A few weeks ago, Brian had made a strong commitment towards raising a 2nd Generation pokemon team. After being part of a first generation tournament that he himself hosted, he decided to go to the next logical step which was to make a 2nd generation team that he was proud of.

He got out his Gold that he had since he was 10 and decided to restart the file and have a clean slate. However, before he did that, he caught a staryu, bred it with a ditto, and picked the best offspring from the eggs that hatched. He then traded it to his pokemon yellow where it was safely held while he restarted his whole Gold file. Once he traded it back, he started on his quest to become a pokemon master.

_Thunderbolt…Thunderwave…Surf…Recover…_

The four moves that Staryu will learn will make this pokemon a force to be reckoned with. He (…It?...Brian thought to himself) combined the idea of versatility with power flawlessly. He could be a key starter for his team, paralyzing opponents with his Thunder Wave and barrage them with Surf or Thunderbolt, depending on the opponent's pokemon type. Once hammered down, he could recover and easily start up again. His speed is what makes him essential as he could strike first and finish off the pokemon. Definitely one of the best water types in the game.

The line was moving at a pace faster than he expected and he had to keep looking up from his Gameboy Color to make sure he didn't fall far behind. 15 minutes in, he struck up a conversation with the person behind him who commented on his costume. They then got into a deep conversation about designing and making costumes and that helped pass the time even quicker as the line rolled forward.

A girl whose style looked like she came right out of the 80s also joined in as well and soon the three eventually talked about what they were going to have Danny sign for them.

The girl held out a button that had Danny's character on it and proudly exclaimed that she wanted him to sign this. The fellow behind Brian, who was dressed as Olimar from Pikmin, held up a t-shirt that the girl Brian talked to earlier also had. Though for this guy, it was several sizes larger. Folding up the shirt and stuffing it to the bag he asked Brian what he was going to have Danny sign for him. Brian laughed and took out his Pokemon Gold (he had saved earlier and turned off the game).

"I didn't really have anything for him to sign except this! I don't know, I kind of find it funny to have a famous voice actor's signature on my Pokemon Gold!"

The girl laughed and the Olimar cosplayer nodded and said, "Hey, I bet it's never been done before."

Brian laughed and said, "That's true…I wonder if Danny himself was once a fan of pokemon?"

"Hmm…probably not, he's like…40 something years old so he was past all of that."

"Yeah…you're probably right…"

The line shortened and he was only 10 people away from Danny Black. He didn't know why but Brian's heart thudded and he suddenly felt nervous. Why? He was just a voice actor for a show he watched some of the time...

And there, there he sat at the end of the table. His dark, thin hair was cropped short to his head and spiked up with still glistening gel. His face showed his age but his eyes flashed like he was a young lad of 18. He smiled at a girl and gave her his autograph on a plush doll of his character. When she left, Brian took another step and was now in front of the long table. He calmed himself down and was about to take out his Pokemon Gold when…

"Oh my God, is that a Gameboy?"

Brian's attention was drawn towards a girl sitting behind the table. She had long, dyed, black hair that was streaked with purple stripes. She had a cute face with long and curvy eyelashes. Her eyes glistened the color of nighttime blue and were wide, overflowing with both curiosity and excitement.

Brian nodded with an amused smile and said, "Yes, it is! I'm going to have Danny sign my Pokemon Gold!"

"Oh, my, God," she repeated putting emphasis on each of the one-syllable words, "That's awesome. And, wait, don't tell me, you're here for that steampunk panel right?"

Brian's smiled got a little bigger and said, "Haha, why yes I am, I'm kind of a fan of that genre and so I got out my gear to come prepared for it!"

"Nice! So you must be, like, a steampunk pokemon trainer right?"

"Right, again," replied Brian wondering if there was such a thing.

"Dude, you are so awesome!"

The girl then gave him a high five which he returned enthusiastically. The line moved forward and Brian took a few more steps. However, this made it easier for him to talk to the girl for he took a few more steps closer to her.

"So what are you doing here exactly?" he asked hoping to get to know the girl a little more.

"I'm helping Danny sell his albums that he has arranged and sung for over the years, if you buy one now, he'll sign the album along with your item too!"

Brian thought about it, well, he _had_ been meaning to expand his music library since it mainly held Beatles, classical music and Lady Gaga, why not?

"How much?"

"Ten dollars."

Brian nodded to himself and said, "Eh, sure, I'll buy one. Which album do you recommend?"

"Ooooh…_Silver Thunder_ is probably my favorite of his albums. I like the song _Drier in Dyer_."

"Alright…well, I'll buy that then."

The girl got out a spare album while Brian got out his wallet, he pulled out a twenty and said, "You don't mind if I pay in this, do you?"

The girl gave an alluring smile and her midnight blue eyes glistened upon the soft light.

"Not at all, Steampunk Trainer…"

Brian's heart gave a big thud like it did earlier when she said his title. He swore he could hear the capital letters in the name she gave him and the emphasis that each syllable so desperately needed. He gave her the twenty and she gave back a ten in one smooth motion. The tips of their fingers gently, but briefly, touched as the transaction was made. But even this was enough to know the sensation that her hands, if not her fingers, were smooth as glass. And with one last graceful motion, she then gave him the album that he bought.

Brian gave a jaunty salute and said, "Thank ya very much!"

Before she could say anything more, the line moved forward and Brian took several steps forward, and thus several steps away from the girl, towards Danny Black.

With him so near, Brian got his Pokemon Gold out and had his recently bought CD ready as well. When he was next, Danny looked at him straight in the eye and gave a nice smile and said, "Well hello, there!"

"Hey," Brian replied with all nervousness gone and destroyed, "Can you sign this for me please? Along with your album?"

He handed the game to Danny who took one look at it almost instantly, his face changed from that of a friendly smile to that which reminded Brian of one who would look at an old toy that brought fond memories of a youth that had long since past.

"Pokemon Gold? Ah…very nice…"

He signed the cartridge with his black sharpie and then signed the album's CD as well. He handed them back and said, "Thank you very much for buying my album."

Brian tipped his top hat and said, "Believe me sir, the pleasure, is all mine."

And with that he walked off allowing the Olimar cosplayer to have Danny sign his items as well. The album and cartridge he held firmly in his hands as if the very thought of letting them go was out of the question.

He turned around and just before he left the room, he saw the girl with midnight blue eyes gave one last wave to him before attending to the next person. Her smile made Brian smile as well as he too returned the wave. But his smile seemed more of self pity then actual happiness as he knew he would never see her again and even if he did, she probably wouldn't like him anyways.

He sighed.

"I'm a hopeless creature," he said to himself as he walked down the crowded and bustling hallway full of cosplayers, "Though I have met many great people here, when will I ever see them again?"

He held up the signed pokemon game and looked at it with wonder. He continued on to himself, "This…will be a memento to this convention…a symbol of both the past and future. A tribute to this event and the constant reminder that I…Brian Dragonfly…will be Pokemon Master of the 2nd generation."

He laughed.

"God, I'm an idiot."

He laughed once more and walked towards the soon to be starting steampunk panel, with his precious game clutched protectively in his hands.


	2. Dual Coverage

Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo, Gamefreak nor Pokemon

Author's Note: So, apparently, this site has changed the formatting on the chapters so I can no longer insert the usual breaks that I commonly have between sections in a chapter. I'm going to experiment to see what I can do to make up for that. I also apologize to those who'll find this chapter slow. I don't know what to tell you except that the later chapters will have more action in it. *shrug*

~0~0~

_Three months later…_

Nobody could argue with you that Northeastern Kanto was one of the least populated areas in the country. Away from the busy, metropolitan dominated Central Kanto, the region is ruled by open landscape and a chain of mountains that start very suddenly in the south and traverse their way to the north. The closest town to the region was Lavender Town which was nestled between the southern base of the blocky and sage covered mountains and the ocean which endlessly gave the dim and gloomy town, a cool and salty breeze.

Thus, it was the lone pokemon center in this region which gave Brian much needed relief and relaxation. It was far away from Cerulean City, which was to the west, and was stationed at the northern base of the mountains near Rock Tunnel. So remote this region was, that the Kantoan Government never really found it necessary to install a proper lighting system or even a well documented map of the region. Trainers were warned to carry a pokemon that knew Flash for otherwise they would get lost and probably never be found again.

Brian thanked himself that he didn't have to go through Rock Tunnel again as it proved to be an annoying and long trek that he would never dare do again. No, he was going somewhere else.

The nurse at the counter gave back his pokeballs and asked, in a voice as soft and sweet as a flute, "Are you ready for your trip into Rock Tunnel?"

"Rock Tunnel? Oh, thank Lugia that I'll never have to go through _that_ hell hole again. No, I'm going somewhere else."

As he clipped the balls onto his belt, the nurse got a good look at his steampunk revolver which dimly glinted against the soft light. She straightened herself in a stiff pose and continued on it a more nervous tone, "Oh…have you just got out of Rock Tunnel then? Are you heading to Cerulean City?"

"Haha, wrong on both accounts. I just got here from Cerulean City and now I'm heading to the abandoned power plant."

"The power plant? You mean the one to the south of here?"

"Yes, in fact…"

He leaned on the counter and lowered his voice down to a mere whisper even though there was no one else in the room.

"…Rumors have it that a very strong, and some say _legendary_ pokemon resides in that building. They say it flies through the sky creating lighting with the mere flap of his wings and thunder with every cry he delivers. _I'm_ going to see if that's true."

The nurse gave an awkward laugh and said, "Ha…ah…okay, good luck on trying to find it…"

He laughed and said, "Oh, I know I'll find it. Oh, and can you hold my revolver for me please? You see, I have to swim to get to the power plant and I don't want the gun powder to get wet during the process, you understand right?"

"Uh…sir…this is a_ pokemon center_."

"Oh, right. Will 10,000 credits do then?"

The glare from the nurse told Brian otherwise. He flinched from her stare but shrugged it off. He pushed himself off of the counter, his watch jingled as he did so, and was about to head off when a thought occurred in his head. He turned around and said to the nurse, "What year is this? 1999, right?"

The nurse, who was already annoyed by his odd behavior, raised an eyebrow and said, "Yes, sir, it is. Are you alright? Maybe you should rest for the night to recover from your journey."

Instead of responding, Brian looked out the window and stared at the mountainside. A blank look came over his face as he saw the beautiful scenery that lie but a kilometer from him. He had always loved the mountains, his family used to live by them ever since he was young. Every day he would wake up to the smell of pine and the sound of distant streams that carried the melted snow. And every day, he would go out on an adventure, pretending that he was exploring new land and finding things no one had ever saw before. He had a happy childhood, he had an adventurous childhood.

The sea of spruces and junipers on the hillside reminded him of a time long since past. To himself he muttered, "1999, huh? God, what a great year that was."

He softly whistled a short tune and focused his attention back to the nurse. Taking a deep breath he said, "It's a pity that you don't know who Lady Gaga is, but then again, maybe it's worth not knowing who she is to live in a fine world like this."

He tipped his hat to her and was off, the nurse never saw him again.

~0~0~

It was the start of the school year and though it was September, the weather hadn't fully figured out yet that it should start getting cooler. True, you wouldn't instantly sweat if you stepped outside your home, but any strenuous exercise would quickly have sweat gliding down your face. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable weather, for there was a constant but low breeze coming from the south and islands of clouds would drift slowly by, covering the sun every once and awhile. The college was alive with the sound of people chattering as they walked on the freshly paved sidewalk and school busses that held little to no people. It was, obviously, a great day to be outside. Much to the displeasure of Brian, he wasn't going to get that.

_God damn...I wish that this class would get out sooner…_

He looked at the clock on the wall impatiently as if it would suddenly decide to stop kidding around and actually speed up. But no such luck, the clock ticked on at a constant but slow pace and gave no indication of speeding up. He gave a quiet sigh and looked back at his lecturing professor.

The short and balding professor kept going on and on about material that Brian didn't really care about. Economics, a required class in which he would sooner eat a jar full of cockroaches than actually take it, was making him bored both out of his mind and skull.

Brian started to doodle upon his notes. First it was just triangles and diamonds juxtaposed from one another, but his pencil soon started drawing a picture that actually looked like something.

It was sharp and had no smoothed curves on it whatsoever. Zig zag! Zig zag! The pencil went back and forth, relentlessly making sharp turns.

His mind slowly drifted away from the lecture and was soon engulfed in his own world.

Ever since Generation 1 the amount of types a particular pokemon could have always ranged from one to two. Sometimes, a pokemon's family may have a constant typing within them, such as the Blastoise Family or the Gengar Family. Sometimes, a type would be added to the family once the baby has reached its highest form such as the Nidoking and Nidoqueen family. And on rare occasions, the original type entirely disappears like the Eevee family.

It is the idea of single or dual typing that is the first thing a serious pokemon trainer considers when choosing his pokemon. How many weaknesses does it have? How many resistances? Does it have any immunities? It is these crucial questions that a trainer thinks first and foremost in their mind when hand selecting their team.

Brian copied down a random graph that his professor drew on the board. He made a side note that it had to deal with competition in the market and the amount of sellers in that market. Once done, his attention was shut off again and his pencil resumed in drawing the doodle. He minutely sketched in the details of feet and legs and drew in nice and sharply curved talons. He looked up from the sketch and stared at the bored a little more.

Some pokemon had gotten the bad end of the stick when it came to dual typing. Parasect was one of them. The combination of Grass and Bug made it 4x weak to Flying, 4x weak to Fire, 2x weak to Rock, 2x weak to Ice and 2x weak to Poison. Even though it could resist Ground and Grass quite easily, these glaring weaknesses made it quite difficult to use in a serious competition.

And that, Brian thought, was the trade off of single typing vs. double typing. Single type pokemon never have any four times weaknesses or resistances which means they can usually take a super-effective hit and keep on going. Dual types run the risk of a One Hit KO.

However, one of the main selling points that draw people into dual type pokemon is their versatility. The combination of types, especially a type that's physical and a type that's special, will create a pokemon whose movepool will make it take on any opposing pokemon without worry that the pokemon may be resistant to one of its moves.

Brian had to break way from his train of thought and scribble down an economic law his professor was going on about like it was his wife (or maybe even a new girlfriend). Brian furiously copied down every thing his elder talked about before he finally moved on to a more, if not more boring, topic.

Without thinking about it, his pencil gave the sketch a pair of mean looking eyes and a beak that was as sharp as a thorn. It was a face one would have to hesistate before giving it a kiss on the cheek.

"Zapdos…" he whispered under his breath.

If the girl next to him heard him utter the Legendary Pokemon she gave no sign of it and kept taking notes diligently. Brian gave a mental shrug and wrote economic information that he didn't care about in his binder. She had already found him childish to begin with and was annoyed by his attention getting antics that he would do before class started. One faint whisper of a pokemon that she probably hadn't heard of before wouldn't change any of that.

Yes, if there was a pokemon that symbolized a good combination of two types, or dual coverage, Zapdos was one of them. With the types of Electric and Flying, Zapdos is strong in both offensive and defensive.

On the defensive side, the Electric Type's only weakness, Ground, is nullified by Flying's immunity towards this popular type. In return, the Electric Type cancels out the Flying Type's weakness to Electric and, as a bonus, makes it so Zapdos can't be paralyzed by Thunderbolt, Thunderwave and other Electric attacks.

The two types cover each other well on the offensive side of battling. Electric attacks don't fare well against Grass Types but Drill Peck, Zapdos' most powerful Flying move, can take them down quite easily. On the flip side of the coin, a Thunderbolt or a well placed Thunder can strike down Water Types with ease. With Water Types frequently holding the powerful Ice Beam, a type belonging to one of two Zapdos' weaknesses, Zapdos had a way to fight back.

But Brian smirked to himself even as this was slowly passing through his head. For all the great strengths that Zapdos had, that didn't necessary mean it was the perfect pokemon.

_Hmmm…Golem…Rhydon…Steelix…_

He easily ticked off three pokemon that could stand up against Zapdos. Like Zapdos and its dual typing, these three pokemon have types that could easily take down the great and powerful Zapdos. Golem's and Rhydon's Rock Type, along with Steelix's Steel Type, were resistant to Zapdos' Drill Peck while all three's secondary typing, Ground, made them totally immune to anything electrical coming from Zapdos. Not only that, but all three could learn Rock Slide, a dangerous move that could take down Zapdos quite easily.

It was almost like Yin and Yang, Brian thought. For every white side there must be a black side. To every day there must be a night. And to every powerful pokemon there must be other pokemon to buffer against it.

It is this golden concept that makes it almost a scientific law in the Pokemon World. There is no such thing as a perfect pokemon nor will there ever be a perfect pokemon (assuming the people of Gamefreak don't go super crazy when designing pokemon). It is such a deep and fundamentally strong concept that those whose heads are too big about their pokemon, will not last even the first round of a Pokemon Tournament.

"Well, I think that will be it for today class," said the professor when he glanced at Brian's nemesis, the clock on the wall. "Why don't you go out and enjoy a day like this! I don't want you to stay inside and listen to an old coot like me go on about microeconomics (though it is quite an enjoyable subject!)."

The class laughed at his insult to himself and proceeded to get up and pack up their belongings. Brian pulled himself out of his mind's world and he too grabbed his school supplies and stuffed them in his much frayed and very old, black backpack.

Though he felt like him spacing out in class helped acquired some good ideas for his recently caught Zapdos (which he caught on his Pokemon Yellow), it didn't occur to him that perhaps this would have a negative consequence of not doing well on his upcoming Economics exam.


	3. The Hidden Heracross

Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo, Gamefreak nor Pokemon

Author's Note: So lately, I've been watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and I really like it. However, one of my bad traits as a writer is that I incorporate elements that I see in a show into my story. So if Brian starts doing alchemy or transfers the soul of his zapdos into a suit of armor, don't be surprised.

~0~0~

Brian had never been so annoyed over finding one single pokemon in all of his life.

After renting a hotel in Azalea Town, Brian had been riding to the base of the Union Cave Mountains every day for the past week and from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M he and his pokemon would hunt for a very aloof fighter.

He sighed.

"I don't know Strawberry," he said while wiping some sweat from his face, "Maybe we're wrong. Maybe we're just looking in the wrong area."

Strawberry, his female Haunter, said nothing. As a loyal servant to her master, she couldn't speak out of turn very easily. How could you? When your human master had all 8 Johto badges? Instead of agreeing with him that he was wrong, she tried to cheer Brian up by pulling out her tongue and using it as a mid-air jump rope.

Brian laughed at her crazy antics but once his laughter died down, a frown replaced his smile and his eyebrows furrowed.

"No, I'm positive we're at the right spot. All the online message boards told me I was looking in the right place. It's just finding a God damn Heracross is so hard to find!"

He kicked at a nearby tree that his sandshrew had been headbutting for the past two hours. The only things that had been falling down from it were sleeping (or when awake, pissed off) spearows or angry aipoms.

"It's _incredibly_ stupid that an idiot like Ash was able to catch a freaking heracross without _any_ trouble whatsoever. No! Heracross don't _do_ that! You got to head butt trees until you finally _find_ the damn thing! Agh!"

He sighed again and Strawberry looked at him with a worried look. She had been with Brian since the very beginning. She, out of all of the gastlys that he caught, thought she was the best one. And together, the two had taken on many foes both weak and strong in their quest to become the best of the best. It pained her to see her master, and her friend, so frustrated when she could do nothing about it.

But then, to Strawberry's surprise, Brian laughed.

"It's funny!" he said, laughing while tears formed in his dark brown eyes, "I come to this world to escape the hardships of my own…only to discover more hardships!"

He wiped his eyes with his once white, t-shirt sleeve and said to Strawberry, "No matter how hard I try, I can never fully forget about my responsibilities in the real world. They're always there! Clinging to the back of my mind and constantly reminding me that this is not my world. I have school work to do, family to talk to, friends to see! And here I am, in this..."

He pulled out several blades of grass and released them in the wind.

"…this…virtual world…"

He shook his head and then laughed another spiteful laugh. He closed his eyes and hummed a soft tune. Ever so softly, he sung in his musical voice, "…Strawberry Fields…nothing is real…and nothing to get hung about! Strawberry Fields forever!"

He smiled, ever since he was very young, he would always sing to himself whenever he was sad. No matter the tune or the situation, he sung until all his tears were gone and all sniffling had ceased.

He stood up from the ground and adjusted his glasses.

"We have work to do, Strawberry. To be a Pokemon Master, you must be able to complete the task at hand, no matter how difficult or stifling it may be. Haha. You ready?"

Strawberry stuck out her tongue and gave a grin any Jack-O-Lantern would be envious of.

"Haha, then let's do this!"

~0~0~

"Did you find your heracross yet?"

"No."

"Yeah…they're such a bitch to find…"

"Tell me about it…"

After another day of classes, Brian had biked back to his apartment where his two other roommates reside. The apartments were relatively close and anyone who loved biking as much as he did never found any problem in the distance between it and the main campus. It's just that sometimes, he wished the traffic would take care to notice him every once in awhile.

Brian clasped his hands behind his head and looked up at the tiled ceiling. He continued on.

"It will be worth it though to finally have a heracross. A pokemon such as him would be a worthy addition to my team."

His Super Senior roommate, Van Wilhelm, smirked at his comment and said, "He would…_if_ you have enough patience to capture him."

Brian slammed his fist down on the arm of the couch he was sitting on. With anger unrestrained he said, "I _will_ capture a heracross, Van! He will be a strong part of my team too!"

Van, who was unphased by Brian's anger, gave a shrug and said, "I'll believe it when I see it. You have a tendency to never finish what you started when it comes to video games. Let's see…you haven't finished Earthbound…Majora's Mask…Ocarina of Time…Mad World…"

"I've finished games before! Like Resident Evil 4 and Luigi's Mansion!"

Van continued on as if he didn't hear him.

"Kingdom of Hearts…Mario 64…Super Mario World…"

From the kitchen, his other, Peruvian roommate, Cesar said, "And don't forget Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess!"

"Alright, alright!" Brian laughed, "I get the idea!"

He can only take so much of his roommates mocking at him before he got angry. No one can make Brian even crack a smile when they poke fun at him, his roommates were one of the few people that can make jokes about him and make him laugh afterwards.

Brian had originally met Van and Cesar in what the campus called a Prestige Hall, a fraternity-like place where men who had a high enough GPA and a good academic record were allowed to be residents in. Brian and Cesar were of the same grade level and thus almost instantaneously took a liking to each other when they met as Freshmen. Their older roommate, Van, was one of Cesar's roommates when he moved in on his first year. Even though he was several grade levels higher than Brian and Cesar, he nonetheless was a good friend to them and acted like an older, if not sarcastic, brother towards them.

Cesar walked out of the kitchen and said, "Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes."

"Sweet," replied Van who resumed typing on his Windows laptop.

"Hey, Brian," said Cesar who sat down on one of the big armchairs that Van brought to the apartment, "What are the moves you're going to teach your heracross with?"

Though Cesar's English was good enough to the point that he can comfortably talk to Van and Brian without having to pause a great deal or get frustrated himself, he still hadn't completely gotten over him substituting his "y's" for his "j's" and vice-versa. Whenever he said "you," it almost sounded like "jew." Though this not at all inhibit his ability to communicate with other English-speaking people.

"You know…I haven't really decided on it yet. Heracross has some choice moves that would make him a formidable pokemon to battle against. Definitely Megahorn. Earthquake is another high contender as well. If _you_ had a heracross what would you teach it?"

"Uh…okay…first off, I would _never_ train a heracross. And second, I've never play Pokemon Gold or Silver before so I couldn't tell you what I would teach it, either."

One of the principal reasons why Cesar and Brian had a strong friendship was that the two had a passionate, though some may say unhealthy, love towards Pokemon. These two Pokemon Maniacs knew a lot about the tricks and trades in the Pokemon Video Games and usually bounced ideas off one another. However, Maniacs they were, they were obsessed with two different generations. For Brian, it was Gen 2, for Cesar, it was Gen 4.

Cesar's first pokemon game was Pokemon Emerald, one of the better, if not the best, version in Generation 3. Like Brian, he was initially hooked by its idea of adventure and how versatile your team can be. So curious was he of Pokemon that he researched more about it on the internet and discovered that this deceivingly simple game was far more complex than he realized. Brian always jokingly thought to himself that the reason why Cesar was so good at English was that he constantly played Pokemon games.

That was not to say that Brian was ignorant when it came to Generation 4, far from it. With Diamond, Platinum and Soulsilver, he was well exposed to Generation 4 and most of its inhabitants. It was even Brian who suggested to Cesar to add a rotom to his team as it would be both a Special Wall and a Status Inflictor.

"What?" said Brian, offended by Cesar's remark, "Why wouldn't you train one?"

"Ah…it's too slow."

Brian waited for him to go on but he didn't. Brian's eyebrow twitched once out of annoyance, Cesar had a nasty, but by all means not intentional, habit of not explaining himself whenever he disagreed with Brian.

"And…?"

Cesar scratched his brown neck and said, "Eh…what's the point of having a Heracross when you have the faster Scizor? If you wanted another dual-fighting type you could also go for Lucario or Breloom. Both are very, very reliable."

"But Heracross has one of the highest attacks in the game! Surely, that will compensate for his speed?"

If typing of a pokemon is one of the first steps towards choosing it for your team, then the next step would be stats. It is stats which determine the overall position the pokemon may have on a team. The six stats; hit points, attack, defense, special attack, special defense and speed determine how powerful a pokemon really is and their role on the team. A pokemon with higher special attack should be given special moves such as Psychic or Fire (they're sometimes known as Special Sweepers) as opposed to one which has a higher attack. On the other side of the coin, a pokemon that has a high special defense should be called in to deal with pokemon that have a high special attack. These pokemon, such as the infamous Snorlax or the annoying Blissey, are known as Special Walls; for they have high special attack and HP.

However, some have argued that the most important stat of all is speed. It is speed that prioritizes who will strike first. A status inflictor, such as Brian's starmie, would come in quickly and paralyzed the opponent without it even reacting. Speed can help set up the team at hand or strike down the opponent when it's weak. Also, if two gengars of the exact same stats, save for one having a little more speed, went up against each other who would win? Assuming no tricks were pulled, the one with the higher speed would since it could come in and use Psychic to take down his brethren. Though Brian somewhat resisted the idea of speed being the most important stat, he could not deny the fact that it was crucial in winning the game.

Cesar shrugged in response to Brian's comment and said, "Eh, what's the point of having higher attack if you can't strike first? The heracross might battle against something that knew Aerial Ace and before you know it, bam! It's dead."

"Hmm, though I'm not worried about Aerial Ace since it didn't exist yet in Generation 2, you do bring up a good point about this problem of his..."

"Might as well give up your dreams on a heracross…" said Van in obviously fake dejected tones.

"Not necessary," said Brian whose eyes squinted a bit, "In Generation 2, speed was not as important as it is now in the current generation. You could paralyzed an opponent and thus bring the original speed down by a fourth and then switch in Heracross. You could also teach a pokemon Agility and Baton Pass so Heracross would get the boost in speed."

After finishing a sentence in his essay, Van swiveled his comfortable chair to Brian and said, "Yeah, but which pokemon would you use to teach it Baton Pass?"

"Ah," said Cesar before Brian could say anything, "Jolteon would be a good contender."

"Meh, he's fragile, he may have the precious speed trainers look for in a pokemon, but his defense is too poor."

"Ah…but…" Cesar stopped to compose himself before saying "Jolteon's only weakness is Ground while heracross resists this type. Jolteon would be able to hold out long enough for one turn to use Agility and then Baton Pass to heracross once the opponent uses Earthquake..."

"…Which then gives the heracross enough speed to strike on the next turn taking down his opponents…yes…that _could_ work."

The oven beeped and Cesar got up from his chair and to see if dinner was ready. Brian's mouth salivated a bit. Cesar was an amazing cook who brought with him from Peru a wide range of meals and dishes that he never tried before. This one was one of his favorites. Roast chicken stuff with cheese and bacon. Just the mere thought of it made his stomach growl in impatience.

When the three sat down to eat, Van said, "So what are you going to name your heracross anyways? Hopefully it's not retarded like when you named your haunter Strawberry."

Before he could object to his comment, Cesar came in saying, "Or when you named your parasect Phil."

"Haha, well, I've never been very good at naming pokemon. I just can't think of a good name for them, you know?"

Van gave a smug smile and said, "I'll always remember the time when I defeated you in your own Pokemon Tournament. It looked like you were about to win but when I froze your golem with my jynx's blizzard attack I knew I was going to win."

"Yeah, yeah and the last pokemon who were left were my parasect and your zapdos. No surprise on who was going to win."

"And yet here you are, raising another Bug Type pokemon that is slow…" said Cesar who ripped off a piece of the juicy chicken.

Brian knew he was kidding with him as Heracross wasn't _that_ slow. Just as well, when someone wounded his pride over a Heracross he always felt slightly offended.

"It won't matter anyways for Brian," said Van who drank from his glass of whole milk.

Brian raised an eyebrow.

"I mean…" Van set his glass down and wiped off his milk moustache. He then said, "Who are you going to face anyways? People are all into the 4th Generation right now and with the oncoming Black and White, people will continue on into the future an not look back into the 2nd. Even if you were to train your pokemon up to level 100 and they have the best stats ever, who's going to fight you?"

A thought flashed into Brian's head but before he could grasp it, it was gone.

He shrugged and said, "I don't know Van…no one…I suppose…"


	4. The Downtown

Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo, Gamefreak nor Pokemon

Author's Note: Sorry this was a little late. But I've just been doing a lot of thinking. I finished Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, btw. It was really, really good. Enjoy!

~0~0~

"Ahhhhhgh…why is it sooooo hard to find the shops in Goldenrod City?"

Brian sniffed impatiently and cricked his neck from side to side. He had just walked into a dead end of a street on the Eastern side of the largest city in Johto. He sighed and scratched his head.

"Well…I think I need to go back to my last turn…and go straight instead of right…we'll see how that'll work."

Despite the maze, Goldenrod City was Brian's favorite city in Johto. The large pokemart had a variety of TMs for sale along with the very important vitamins. The gambling casino had rare TMs there. The underground had a haircut salon that could boost your pokemon's happiness. The Name Rater was here so you could change the names of your pokemon if you hated it. And it had the magnetic train which could take you to Saffron City almost in an instant.

It also had a bike shop.

"You know, Strawberry," he said while walking on the yellow, cobble road that was a distinguishing trait of Goldenrod City, "Biking is one of the best forms of exercise man could use."

Strawberry said nothing but looked at all the blank houses that had neither windows nor doors on them.

"It's faster than walking, you could coast when you get tired, and, most importantly, you work out while actually going somewhere."

He let his hand glide across one of the walls of the expressionless houses.

"Jogging…had never been my favorite thing to do…but biking? That's another story. I always like to feel the wind blow pass my face and the exhilarating feel of going down a hill at speeds no person on foot could obtain.

He turned the corner and after some walking he saw a small building with a sign next to it that said GOLDENROD BIKE SHOP.

Without hesitating, he entered the shop and, not to his surprise, saw no customers there. A middle aged man with a rough five o' clock shadow, uncombed hair and a cigarette limply hanging from his lips leaned on the counter of the front desk and stared out his window looking at the city block. When the bell from the door rang he sat up so quickly that the cigarette flew from his mouth. He didn't notice that though and said in a dumbfounded expression, "A…customer?"

"Yah, and this customer wants a bike!"

"Oh, thank Lugia!" cried the owner, "I haven't had a customer since I moved from Cerulean City!

"Tough times, eh?"

"Yes…but maybe…how about this? I'll give you a bike for free…if you attract enough customers to my shop! How does that sound?"

Brian stroked his phony goatee and said, "I like the sound of that."

"Great! Here you go and thanks again!"

And just like that, Brian got a bike with no hassle whatsoever. He had to admit, this was easier than the time he was at Cerulean City where he had to get a bicycle pass from a man who wouldn't shut up about his rapidash. He loved when things just fall into his lap like that.

He grabbed his recently given bike and headed off. The bike owner gave a cheery wave and shouted, "Thanks again!"

Brian waved back and focused his attention back on the road. As he rode down the cobbled roads at high speeds, he started humming the tune from Queen's Bicycle Race.

~0~0~

"I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my biiiiike…"

As Brian peddled down the old, red cobbled street, he carefully noted the street signs that he was passing to make sure he got off at the right street. Once it came, he gave his hand signal and turned right. The street immediately turned into an asphalt covered road and he could easily see the downtown up ahead. As he peddled forward, stores of all flavors began to replace houses and parks and brought with them the charm of the downtown.

Brian slowly turned the handlebars of his bike to the right and zoomed into a nearby parking lot. He watched carefully for park cars that might back out and pedestrians that might walk in front of him as he preferred not to hit either of them.

He screeched to a halt in front of a bike rail and jumped off his bike with ease and gusto. He took the u-lock and snapped it onto his beloved bike and the rail. If anyone wanted to steal his bike, they'll have to work hard for it.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Brian snapped off his helmet and let it swung by his side as he walked through the crowded streets of the downtown area. Shop after shop screamed at him to buy their clothes with their tacky and gaudy signs. He ignored all of them except a casual glance at a window to see his faint reflection looking back at him. Restaurants, both locally owned and chain stores, delivered a faint scent of deliciousness as he went by them.

But Brian was neither hungry nor wanting to shop for clothes, no, he was going to a very special store indeed.

As he crossed the road, he saw the Game Palace up ahead.

The Game Palace was a locally owned video game store that, unlike Game Stop, sold old video games that went all the way back to the Nintendo Entertainment System and beyond. If you had a council, you could guarantee to find a game in their for your system. NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, all three Playstaions, Xbox, Xbox 360, Sega, Dreamcast, PC, and anything else one might think of.

The store comfortably sat next door to the Hookah House which had an interesting effect on Brian's mind. Since he had been going to Game Palace for years, he was always reminded of the video game store every time he smoked a Hookah with some of his buddies. The scent of the store would seep through the walls and vents and lightly bathe the Game Palace in a quiet and relaxing aroma.

As he entered the door, the bell rang overhead and the AC from inside blew gently across his face. As the door shut behind him, a familiar voice cried his name.

He looked towards the counter and saw his good friend, Grace Dent, waved to him. He returned the wave and walked forward, making the wooden floor squeak as it sagged a bit from his weight.

Grace Dent was a freshman at the university and the two were introduced to each other the first week of school due to a friend that they both knew introducing each other. She had long, light-colored hair that was streaked with red stripes and secretary-like glasses that were perched all the way up the bridge of her nose. She was a video game enthusiast like he was and she, he thought, was incredibly lucky in getting a job at Game Palace. In normal circumstances, he would ask a girl of this caliber out but no, she was an exceptional case.

"And what can I do for you today, Dragonfly?" she said, chewing her Trident gum slowly and steadily.

"Well, Dent, I was hoping you could hook me up with a very _special_ game today."

"Oh? You're finally going to buy Skies of Arcadia like I keep telling you to?"

"In due time, in due time, no, I'm going to buy Pokemon Crystal!"

"But you already have that special Pokemon Gold of yours, doncha? Unless you sold it on Ebay or something…"

"Ah, but Dent! I would never sell my Gold as I treasure it too much."

"Yeah, I know, you keep telling me about that guy who signed your cartridge and how he did a lot of voice acting."

"And because of which, it is special."

"He didn't even voice anything from Pokemon! Why did you even do it in the first place?"

It was almost routine at this point, Brian would come in to the shop and talk to Grace and always the two would somehow find themselves talking about Brian's autographed Gold cartridge and start arguing why it was, or not, stupid.

"Well it doesn't matter at this point, do you have Pokemon Crystal in your storage or not?"

The sound of Grace's black-painted fingernails clicking on the computer reminded him of the sound of a crab that was rapidly opening and closing its claws. The analogy fit for she too had the temperament of a crab.

"Yes, we do, shall I get it?"

"Yes, madam, I would like it very much."

She went to the Gameboy shelf and unlocked the glass case with the small key attached to her noisy keychain. While she was doing that, Brian said, "So how's your girlfriend doing?"

Grace pulled out the sparkling blue cartridge and shut the glass case, locking it. Walking back she replied, "She's fine. She's gone home over the weekend to visit her parents again. Can't blame her, I haven't seen my parents for several weeks."

"Yeah…a six hour drive back to your hometown would be very annoying to do every weekend…"

She walked back behind the counter and set it down, face up, on the counter. He looked at it with a mixture of awe and happiness as he realized he'll finally be able to acquire what some would say was the best Pokemon game ever.

She gave him the total amount and he handed her a crisp 20 dollar bill which she took and nimbly slide it into the cashier and handed back his change. Placing the game inside a small, plastic bag, she said, "Thank you for stopping by, Dragonfly."

"No prob."

As he grabbed the bag off of the counter and into his backpack, Dent said, "Are you going to have another Pokemon tournament?"

Brian stopped and gave her a shrug, "I don't know, depends I guess…if there's enough support for it I will."

"Kay…you should really do it. I'm disappointed that I wasn't here last year when you did the last one. I always wanted to train an arcanine and put it in battle. Yeah, I know, it may not be one of the best Pokemon out there but it's been my favorite ever since I was young…will you do another one?"

"Well…" he gave her a weak smile and said half-heartedly, "I might."

Giving her a meek wave, he walked out, floorboards squeaking again during the process.

Once out of the Game Palace, Brian walked north down the bustling street to his next destination. Again, restaurants would try to entice him with food or reveal outlandish clothes on their smudged windows but again, he would ignore them.

The downtown of Brian's area was centered primarily on Maine Street. Though Missouri and Alabama Street, which respectively lie to the west and east of it, carries some of the downtown area as well, Maine was, as the people of Brian's town usually joked, "the Main[e] Street of Downtown."

As such, colorful characters of different races, beliefs, social standings and ages walked the sidewalks with zeal and rhapsody. Sometimes, these characters would come out and play instruments that may be banjos, bongos, cellos and drums and even an accordionist or a bagpiper might come out once in awhile. They would fill the sound of the streets with their melodic music that is original if not whimsical. Sometimes, though, other, more depressing characters would come out.

"Excuse me," said a beggar who jumped up besides a dull-colored fire hydrant holding a half bottle of 2L coke, "would you mind giving me some change? I don't have hardly anything to buy food with!"

A year ago, Brian would have but after a rather unfortunate incident that happened between him and an unruly beggar, he had stopped doing such things. Brian ignored the beggar as if he wasn't even there and walked on. The beggar cursed at him with a mouth that would make any sailor proud and moved on to find someone else to ask money for.

After passing by a bicycle shop, Brian wiped off his dusty shoes and entered into the Java Nutt, a relatively low-key coffee shop that was little known and mostly overlooked. Many people would pass by, not giving it a second glance, and head towards the more luxurious, if not more presentable, restaurant the Lion's Den. The Java Nutt was perfect for Brian, who savored getaways from his apartment, when he couldn't stand his roommates, or from school, when he got tired of his studying.

He walked into the coffee shop and, unlike Game Palace, no door bell rang overhead. Also unlike Game Palace, the floor was covered with tiles that had green splotched onto a white background. So when he walked, the floor did not groan. He passed by hipsters surfing on the internet with their Macs and a middle-aged man with a beard that fell to his chest.

The plumped girl at the counter asked what she could get for him today and he replied Café Mocha. As he waited for his beverage, he resisted the urge to ask for a biscotti as well, for the cookie-like food was sitting in a nice, big, glass jar and was looking quite appetizing. But his resistance pulled through and the girl handed him his drink and he gave her the change.

Taking his drink, he sat down on one of the wooden, if not rickety, chairs and pulled out of his backpack The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He was told constantly that it was a good book by his friends and he had been meaning to read it. He opened the book and resumed reading its contents.

Though playing Pokemon on his Gameboy was a way for him to escape from the world, when he wanted something more natural and less electronic (or when he was getting frustrated with the game) he would result to reading in the quaint coffee shop that he had been going to for several years now.

As he read, he listened to the music the shop was playing and let its gentle tempo and sweet brass instruments soothe his pin up emotions that had become stressed out due to school. Such music he longed to put on his I-pod but he never learned the artist's name from those songs. He even wanted some of the Native American music that was playing the week before that had such a sweet sounding flute to it.

As he sat at the corner of the store, a familiar voice called out his name.

"Brian? Hey, Brian! What's up?"

Brian looked up and saw his friend, Evan Zbikowski, looking down at him holding a glass of iced coffee in his hands.

Evan Zbikowski, to Brian's current understanding pronounced "Zi-bi-cow-skee," was a friend of his that he knew from the Prestige Hall. Evan was proud that he broke the idea of what was considered "norm" in this society and went out of his way to prove it. Sometimes, it came naturally, like how he was the state doubles champion in Dance Dance Revolution, or he made it so, like how he learned how to play sitar in one month along with the banjo. He was a person who held his chest up high and this was even amplified by the fact that he wore a southern-style suit every day with his straight-from-the-1930's gray fedora. There was truly no one like him.

"Hey, Evan, sit down, sit down. How are you? I haven't seen you for awhile…"

Evan pulled out the chair theatrically and sat down in it with as much gusto. Taking a pull from his cold coffee he said, "Not bad, Brian, not bad at all. Things at the Prestige Hall haven't been as lively with you not living there anymore."

Brian put a bookmark in his book and said, "Oh? Surely you, of all people, would have been able to make that possible."

"Yeah, well, whattaareyougoingtodo? The men at that hall don't spring upon my ideas like they did to yours. Probably because I'm somewhat a douche!"

He gave a light laugh and took another drink from his mug. Brian laughed with him because he knew that was somewhat true.

Before asking Evan how his band was doing, Evan cut him off and said, "I have a proposition for you, Brian."

"Oh?" Brian said again raising an eyebrow in the process, "And what might that be?"

"Well…" Evan's voice lowered a bit and leaned in. That was probably for the better for the man sitting in the table over was getting distracted by Evan's loud voice.

"…I've been meaning to Facebook you about this idea I had but I kept forgetting about it. It's lucky for me that I found you here otherwise I would have forgotten the whole thing altogether!"

"And what's this idea?" said Brian who rested his hand on his book to see if Evan would pick up the hint to leave him be.

Evan didn't notice and said, "Well, remember that Pokemon Tournament you hosted several months ago?"

Brian nodded and said, "As I recall, you lost the first round."

Evan tossed that notion to the side like it wasn't even bothersome and said, "Ehh…that guy was lucky. One too many critical hits from his side! Lady Luck wasn't caressing me with her hands that night…"

"Get to the point."

"Okay, okay. Well, I was thinking that you should do something like that again!"

"Another tournament?"

"Not just that but go a step further! Think of how many closeted Pokemaniacs there are out there! Imagine…joining them together so they could meet each other and talk to each other and enjoy each other's company!"

"A club?"

Evan winked at Brian and took another drink from his half-full (or if you prefer half-empty) drink. Setting it down almost too loudly, he said, "Exactly. This school doesn't have a Pokemon Club. Why don't we do something about it?"

Brian's hand pulled back from the book and rested it on his lap, leaning back a bit, he said, "If you're so keen on making a Pokemon Club, why don't you do it?"

"Because I'm a douche, remember? People aren't going to follow me! They'll follow you! The only reason you were able to get those college students out of their Starcraft and Halo habit was because you inspired them and made them remember how much fun the game was!"

"_is_," corrected Brian.

"Right, right. The point is, that there's something about you, Brian, which makes our peers remember the good ol' days of Pokemon and how much fun the game really is!"

"You might be right, but Evan, I haven't made a club before and I haven't even been president, or vice-president of one either! How would you expect someone like me to do something like that?"

Evan shrugged and said, "You'll manage."

"And even if I did know, do you know what kind of approval I'll have to get from the student body? I'll be laughed at when I present them with this ludicrous idea of a Pokemon Club! Christ…"

"Ah!" said Evan with as much gusto as a peacock, "but you won't be laughed at as much, when you have enough club members to _prove_ it."

"Keep your voice down!" Brian whispered harshly, "and besides, where am I going to find enough people to _join_ the club?"

"Well, for starters, you can ask your friends! You see! I'm one! Together, we have two already!"

Brian sighed and said, "I suppose there's no way around it then is there?"

"So you'll do it?"

Brian thought about what Grace said earlier to him. True, there were some people out there who were Pokemaniacs, but a lot of them were closeted as well. It would be hard to find those people as well. To get a club fully approved of…would take…as best as he could guess…at least 10 or and maybe even 20 members to get the thing off the ground.

But as he thought of the challenge it would take, it made him yearn for the result. He always loved a good challenge. And maybe, if he played his cards right, he could even do it to. And what's more, he could fight other trainers out there, one's who loved the 2nd generation as much as he did!

He remembered the girl at the convention that he saw three months ago. He remembered her midnight blue eyes…

Perhaps…

Brain looked at Evan stolidly and said, "So, where do we begin?"


	5. The Trinity of Pokemon

Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo, Gamefreak nor Pokemon

Author's Note: I have never written a story like this before. So please excuse me if it's a little slow but I think I finally found a way to write it. I'm having so much fun writing this! You'll also have to please excuse me for the topic discussed today. *shrug* I thought it had to be mentioned before I go on to other, more interesting aspects. Enjoy!

~0~0~

It was to Brian's honest opinion that the Kantoan Government could have done a lot better in serving the people of its nation.

Some of the roads that he had traveled, mainly by walking, were down trodden and were quite dangerous in some aspects. The cities didn't even have busses, aeroplanes or trains to take a citizen from one city to the next. Not only that, but wild pokemon were constantly near the roads making them dangerous to somebody that was not a trainer.

Brian could add one more thing to that list, which was Cycling Road, the bridge that connected Celadon City to Fuchsia City. Punks of different gangs and classes patrolled the area looking for a good fight to somebody that looked at them wrongly or disagreed with how they hadn't put on deodorant for more than a week.

It just made Brian wonder what kind of sick people in the government of Kanto keep letting this malicious activity go on without even lifting a finger to stop them. They might as well not have built the bridge in the first place since no one even uses the damn thing at all for obvious reasons.

Normally it was annoying to go on Cycling Road but Brian needed the experience.

Brian cocked his steam punk pistol and made sure it was loaded. Adjusting his now worn top hat and wiping some dirt off his vest, he reached to his side and pulled out a pokeball that was colored purple with black stripes on it. He then called out Aragorn, his nidoking.

Aragorn looked at Brian with a face that showed he was pumped up for battle. He gave a roar and slammed his fists together several times making soft thuds every time. His violet horn gleamed in the afternoon sun and his thick tail quivered with energy. Brian looked at him with a stern expression and said, "You ready to destroy some bikers?"

Aragorn roared again and bared his teeth which indicated that he was indeed ready.

Brian silently nodded and got onto his bike.

"Let's go."

He peddled forward on the sidewalk that led towards Cycling Road, Aragorn ran after him, causing the ground to quiver every time he did so. At last, when he was at the entrance of the bridge, a gang of bikers saw him and revved their horribly loud cycles and raced their ways toward him. Soon the bikers surrounded Brian and his nidoking, they laughed at him and gave cat calls to him. Brian was not fazed by their taunts and was actually more offended by their ugly appearance. Some of them were fat and bald as a cue ball while others were as thin and jaunty as a scarecrow and had spiky Mohawks. The leader of them, who was carrying a whip, got off his bike and shouted to Brian.

"Hey, punk! This is _our_ land you're crossing! You'll have to pay us 20,000 credits if you want to pass!"

Brian told him to shove off only with much coarser language.

The leader just laughed at his comment and said because of that, he and his gang will have to take all his money and his pokemon as well.

Brian smiled, cricked his neck and motioned him with his hand to make good with his threat.

The leader laughed again and then called out his weezing. He then said, "Weezing! Use Tackle attack!"

"Aragorn! Take him down!"

Aragorn and Weezing charged at each other at full speed. Weezing was about to slam into him but Aragorn dodged the attack and grabbed Weezing's side head and slammed it down to the ground. Before Weezing could get back up, Nidoking raised his foot up and slammed it down on Weezing's face, consequently causing an Earthquake attack. Brian saw it all in slow motion, Aragorn's foot made contact with the Weezing, whose expression was that was fear, and violently squashed his face in. The ground shook violently and some of the bikers actually lost their balance and fell off of their bikes. When Aragorn lifted his foot, Weezing was knocked out. His face was now even uglier and it was faintly emitting a poisonous gas.

At this point, the leader's face changed from being jaunty to angry. He looked at his fallen bikers and screamed, "Don't just stand there! Take him down!"

Ignoring normal battle procedures, the bikers called out their pokemon and ordered them to attack Aragorn.

Koffings flew towards Aragorn while wearing their stupid grins. Aragorn stood his ground and held his arms to the side. Giving a mighty roar of strength, rocks from nearby rose into the air and with a mighty throw they flew through the air and landed squarely on the toxic pokemon.

Bam! Crack! The noxious pokemon didn't have a chance. The large boulders fell upon them and squashed them flat.

From behind, a muk jumped onto his back and used sludge bomb to no great effect. The poisonous goo slowly slid down Aragorn's face and he blinked several times to rid himself of it from his eyes. Grasping the muk was hard because of his amorphous nature but he solved it by jumping up in the air and falling down upon his back. The muk was flattened under his weight and the air was kicked up with dust and grime. Weakened, the muk loosened his grip on Aragorn and slid off his back. The nidoking rolled over and slammed his tail on the muk causing the ground to shake again. The ground shook violently under muk and jostled him so much that he passed out.

Just then, wham! A machoke's fist went right into Aragorn's jaw. Aragorn fell back a bit and grasped his mouth. He was caught off guard by the attack and tasted his iron-rich blood. He was more pissed off than he was hurt and gave a snarl to the machoke. Spitting some blood, he ran up to the machoke and the two's hands forcefully locked onto each other causing a struggling match between the two. Aragorn's eyes flashed with anger and adrenaline as did the machoke who was enjoying such a rich battle. Without hesitating, Aragorn opened his mouth and let loose a stream of flames onto his opponent's face. The machoke screamed in agony and let go of Aragorn paws. He clutched his eyes in pain and stumbled a bit. Aragorn thundered up to him and punched him in the gut. The machoke crumbled and Aragorn let loose another stream of flames onto his opponent's back. The machoke cried again and this time, fell completely to the ground.

While this was going on, a biker crept up to Brian and was about to take him down. Without hesitating, Brian pulled out his pistol and aimed it right at the biker's face. He then said, "Take one more step and I'll blow your brains out. Don't think I won't."

The biker, who had no gun of his own, was surprised by this and slowly backed away, yielding to his lanky adversary.

At this point, Aragorn had taken down all of his opponent's pokemon but just as Brian was to claim victory, the leader stepped out and said, "Hold on! I got one more pokemon! And this time, it will spell the end for you and your nidoking! Go, Hypno!"

A flash of light and a hypno came out of his pokeball. Aragorn looked at Hypno with wariness. Brian stiffened, Hypno had the type advantage and if he was strong enough, he would be able to take down Aragorn. The two pokemon looked at each other and waited to see what their masters would tell them.

"Now, Hypno, use Confusion!"

"Shadow Ball, Aragorn!"

The pendulum Hypno had quickly waved back and forth. Hypno raised his hand and closed his eyes. It went faster and faster and a strange aura began to form around Hypno's hand.

Aragorn roared and lowered himself, he then sprinted himself towards Hypno and pulled back his left hand. A dark, pulsating anti-matter grew and grew in his paw and was soon the size of a small basketball. Aragorn's eyes grew wide with wrath and he smiled maliciously. He breathed in and out quickly.

His mouth still bled from earlier but he didn't notice it. His face was still stinging from the muk's sludge bomb but he didn't care. He was focusing everything he got on the hypno. He wanted to take it down, in one shot.

Faster and faster the pendulum went. And when it reached its apex, Hypno released his psychic energy and it went full frontal into Aragorn. The air was filled with a strange, crinkling sound when it impacted Aragorn.

His brain throbbed with pain as he took the attack. His muscles weakened and his old wounds threatened to open again. But he withstood it. It hurt him, but he almost liked the pain. It made his hunger for victory even greater.

The attack slowed him down and he closed his eyes. He thought of Brian and knew that he was counting on him to win.

To win against this bastard.

In a flash his eyes opened, and his Shadow Ball grew in strength, feeding off of his dark emotions. His speed picked up again and the hypno took a step back in surprise when he realized that Aragorn survived the attack.

Aragorn swallowed his own blood that was still bleeding from his tongue and with one last push; he shoved his left paw into the stomach of the hypno and released his Shadow Ball.

The Shadow Ball tore its way into Hypno's gut and scrambled his psychic energy and organs, it then shot right back out of his back like a fountain of misty oil. No hole was left behind. No blood was spilled.

The scene was silent and Hypno still stood firmly, never backing away once, but shaking with pain. His eyes were wide and blood rolled down his face from his big proboscis. Aragorn retracted his paw and with a small push, the hypno fell, he fainted before he hit the ground.

Aragorn proudly looked over the battle scene to see his fallen opponents; he then looked up at the sky and roared for a final time while releasing a stream of flames. He looked at Brian and suddenly acted like an overgrown dog. He hobbled up to Brian and gave a soft but friendly growl to him. Brian smiled and stroked his maw and said, "Good boy, I'm very proud of you. Remind me to treat you when we get to Fuchsia City."

Aragorn stroked himself against Brian's hand in quiet happiness. Brian then gave him a super potion which stopped the bleeding in his mouth, made his muscles less numb and sore and quieted the pounding in his brain.

Brian turned to the leader and gave a friendly smile. He then said, "Give me your money, bitch."

~0~0~

A trainer determines the pokemon he will train and raise by a combination of three very important aspects of it. Two of them are typing and stats. The third one is movepool.

The movepool of the pokemon is a major factor in determining how useful the pokemon is to the team. A pokemon that has high physical attack, such as Machamp, can take excellent use of its movepool which has Earthquake, Rock Slide, Return and the deadly Cross Chop. Taking it a big step forward, a weird pokemon like Wobbufett, would be quite comfortable with Counter and Mirror Coat due to its large HP but dismal defense.

Sometimes, it's one or two moves that even defines the pokemon itself and makes it a strong addition to any team. Heracross' signature move, Megahorn, is by far the strongest Bug Type move and for Generation 2, only Heracross knew it. With its high accuracy and its even higher attack it's a threat to even those that are not weak to it.

But there are some pokemon whose movepool makes you wonder what the heck Gamefreak was thinking…

"Brian!"

"Huh…what?"

"Are you there?"

"Uh…"

Brian's blank look was wiped clean and replaced with alertness. He looked up and saw Evan, once again, hovering above him holding his lunch tray. Brian blinked several times.

The two were at the university owned cafeteria, The Hideaway. Located in the center of the bustling school, many students came here to eat lunch during their midday break, regardless of what they thought of the food or its prices.

Brian was expecting Evan to talk about the club. However, he was a little late and it gave Brian time to think about one of his favorite video games ever.

"Thinking about how great your chicken sandwich tastes?" joked Evan who sat down across with him.

"Nah…I was just thinking about Pokemon…"

"Now that's what I like to hear from our soon-to-be-president of the Pokemon Club!"

Evan took a slice of his small pepperoni pizza and bit the tip off, apparently, the pizza was still too hot for he dropped the pizza as if it was a bomb and started panting real quickly to cool down his mouth. An amused Brian took a bite of his sandwich and watched Evan try to cool himself down.

After taking a drink from his Sprite, Evan said, "What were you thinking about exactly?"

"Oh how Gamefreak sort of dropped the ball when it came to certain pokemon…"

"Ah…well, when designing hundreds of pokemon, not all of them could be perfect. I mean…look at Luvdisc! Seriously…what the hell is it?"

Evan paused at Brian's small laugh and said, "And don't get me started Spinda. Now _there's_ a useless pokemon if I ever saw one. Bunch of bull how his spots change due to his IV's or some crap like that. What were you thinking?"

"Well…I was thinking more on the lines of a pokemon being useful. Like Kingler for instance."

"Kingler? What's wrong with him? I think he's pretty kick ass. Haven't you seen the anime? Ash's krabby took down an exeggutor, evolved into a kingler, and then took down a golbat and a seadra. All in one episode! Now, after hearing that, how could you say such a thing?"

"His stats and his movepool don't match, that's why he useless."

Evan squinted his eyes in disbelief and took another bite of his pizza (which he blew on a bit before doing so).

"Go on…"

"Kingler's highest stat is Attack but this clashes against his Special typing which is Water. In fact, his Special Attack is so abysmally low that it is more sad than funny. Even though he has great Attack, he has hardly any moves to make any use besides some of the stupid Normal moves."

Evan nodded to that and said, "That was fixed though when the Gen 4 games came around. What with the Special/Physical split and all."

"Yeah, that's actually something I wish Generation 2 had done. It would have made the playing field a lot more even for many pokemon."

As he was biting off his thick pizza slice, Evan said, "Just a side question but how _do _you remember which types are Physical and which are Special? This, of course, assuming you have a game that is before Gen 4."

"Haha, I always remember it by the Eeveelutions."

"How so?"

"Well, all the Eeveelutions, including the ones in Generation 4, are all Special typing. When you take that and add in the Dragon Type you get the complete collection of Special Types."

Evan set down his pizza crust and to himself, listed off the types.

"Fire, Electric, Water, Psychic, Dark, Grass, Ice…Dragon…huh. Funny to think that Ghost is not a Special Type as well."

"Yeah, which is one more reason why I think the Special/Physical split in Generation 4 was the best thing that was introduced."

Brian took his apple-flavored Jones Soda bottle and unscrewed the lid. The soda fizzed and green bubbles quickly climbed to the top of the bottle. He looked underneath the lid which read, _Your venture into new territory will reward you._ Snorting at the irony of the statement, he took a swig from the bottle and set it down on the spotless table.

"It's funny," he said wiping his mouth a bit, "but the Eeveelutions actually support something that I was thinking about earlier…"

"And what's that?"

"Ah, I've been struggling to find a name for it but what I come up was the Divining Trinity of Pokemon."

"Trinity? What are you, Christian?"

"No, but like I said, I couldn't really think of anything else. It seemed appropriate."

"Well, what is it?"

"A trainer decides on a pokemon by three things; typing, stats and movepool, or the Trinity. The trainer weighs each aspect with a critical eye and a clear mind. If one aspect was lacking in quality but the other two make up for it, then the pokemon would probably be accepted."

After taking another bite from his sandwich, Brian continued, "A good example of that would be my nidoking, Aragorn. Though his Poison/Ground typing is alright, he makes up for it for his nice stats and especially his movepool. Nidoking can learn all sorts of moves; Earthquake, Rock Slide, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Thunder, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Ice Beam, the list goes on. He's the wildcard on my team and whenever an opponent goes up against him, they're not too positive on what sort of arsenal he's carrying. This accessibility to great moves means he can take on a variety of pokemon including to ones that are strong against his typing."

Brian shrugged and said, "But like I said, each trainer judges a pokemon differently. One of my roommates actually doesn't like Nidoking solely because of his typing and not high enough Attack."

"You said that the Eeveelutions actually relate to this. How so?"

Brian smiled and said, "They're quite the perfect example of how the Trinity works. All Eeveelutions are linked by two things, one is that they evolve from Eevee and two is that they all share the same total base stats. Though each of them have different assortment of stats, they all total up equally."

"Because of which, the trainer is to judge each of them by how their typing and movepool compliment their unique stat distribution. This is just one of several reasons why people are so fascinated and drawn to the Eeveelutions."

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that because I chose Flareon I lost the first round in your Pokemon Tournament?"

"Yes."

"But nobody ever chooses Flareon! I didn't want that fiery fox-thing to be left alone! Besides, variety is the spice of life!"

Brian knew that Evan hated to go on the well traveled path of life. He would always try anything new or different no matter how unwise it may be. Flareon wasn't his only unique pokemon, he also had a Kabutops, Articuno, Mr. Mime, Marowak and Clefable. Everyone kept telling him how unlikely his team was to win any battle but he refused to give in. He went into the tournament with brimming confidence but was beaten soundly and thus went out with a lackluster personality. Brian hoped that Evan learned a lesson from that day but he somewhat doubted that.

"Flareon has got to be the worst Eeveelution ever. That does _not _mean…" continued Brian when he saw Evan's disagreeable face, "…that his stats are low."

"Flareon suffers because his typing, stats and movepool do not agree with one another. For one thing, he's a Fire Type, a type that is quite poor to begin with in defensive style since it's weak to common attacks. This coupled with his abysmally low Defense, makes him highly likely to be KO'd in one hit by Rock Slide or Earthquake. His highest stat is his Attack which conflicts with the special typing of Fire. The only worthwhile physical attacks that he can learn are Return, Shadow Ball and Iron Tail. And though Iron Tail might be able to scare away a Rock Type these moves don't have much potential in protecting Flareon what he's weak against."

Evan was silent for awhile, he was proud and he didn't like it whenever someone outright told him what he was doing was stupid and even more so when they had proof to back it up. He looked as if he bit into a sour lemon and sat with his arms crossed. After a few seconds, he grabbed his soda and took a drink from it. Setting it down, he said, "Sometimes, you can be a real butthole when you use your great Pokemon knowledge."

Brian laughed and said, "I'm just saying that Flareon may not be my first choice when choosing an Eeveelution. He may be strong sometimes but most of the time he's just not that threatening."

"One day…I'll make you eat your words," vouched Evan who tore off a piece of his pizza with vengeance.

"Ho-kay, Evan," replied Brian in is goofy tone.

"On another note…" Evan swallowed his food and said, "What have you gathered so far for the Pokemon Club?"

"Uh…well…we have a problem."

"What's that?"

"Apparently, the deadline has already passed to start a new club this semester. For next semester though the due date will be November 26th."

"Hmmm…that's alright. That'll give us time to find out how many people are interested in the club and whether it'll sink or float. So we got more than two months to get this club up and running."

"Yeah, that sounds reasonable. We also need a sponsor for the club. Though I'm still unfamiliar of the details, I believe it has to be a professor."

At this point, Evan coughed on his soda and said, "What? A professor? How are we going to get a professor to approve a Pokemon Club?"

Brian shrugged and said, "I don't know, but like I said, that's what I think. It's highly possible that other faculty members of the university can sponsor the club as well."

"Hmm…that's going to be interesting trying to recruit somebody who's over 35 years old to be the sponsor of our club."

"The last thing I found out was that we need at least 10 members in order for it to be approved by the Student Senate. We also have to present our club in person as well. If they find it an appropriate club that does not infringe on the rights of other students then it'll most likely be approved. And that's…basically all I have found for now…more details will spring up as we go on."

"Hmm…" he said again, "doesn't sound too difficult. We just got to find a sponsor…"

"Easier said than done," said Brian which complimented Evan's thoughts on the manner.

"Okay then…now, what about our first, unofficial meeting? Did your roommates say it was okay to host it at your place?"

"They said it was fine. We're going to have it on the 16th, which is a Thursday. I already made a Facebook event and invited you. Once you accept, I'll make you an administrator so you can invite other people as well."

"Awesome, you're way ahead of me then. I'll invite some of my friends as well. How many do you think will come?"

Brian shrugged and said, "Hard to say, ten maybe?"

Evan smiled and nodded slowly, "Yes…that'll do."

Brian smiled back and said, "I actually got a good feeling about this. Even if other people don't join the club, at least it will be a nice gathering of friends who have a common interest."

Evan shook his head and said, "Brian, Brian, you must think big! This club will be great! And it will be awesome! Here…"

He raised his half-drunk soda and said, "A toast, for the future!"

Brian raised his Jones Soda bottle and touched the cup, he then replied, "Yes! And may it be as beautiful as Ho-oh, and as powerful as Lugia!"

The two drank their sodas until it was all gone.


End file.
